By Dan Martin
Filed Monday, May 07, 2007 at 11:47 AM
Fired Up! Missouri brought to our attention today a story run by the Post-Dispatch. According to the story, "A poll released today by a Clayton research institute shows two-thirds of Missouri residents favor the controversial school choice legislation defeated earlier this year by the state House of Representatives." Labels: Media_Watch, Schools
The story goes on to explain that the survey "found that 67 percent of Missourians support the tax credit proposal."
The problem Fired Up! Missouri brought to our attention is that the Post-Dispatch story downplays the fact that the survey was conducted on behalf of the Show-Me Institute by Market Research Insight.
The Show-Me Institute itself is an advocacy organization that supported the defeated legislation, and Market Research Insight is a paid consultant of Governor Matt Blunt, for whom school vouchers are key re-election issue. The organizations are mentioned in the story, but there is little recognition of the fact that the survey results come from these possibly biased organizations.
Instead, these results are presented as objective, with several paragraphs intervening between the mention of the polling firm and the explanation of that firm's biases. Even then, only a single sentence is given over to mention of this potential bias.
Questions and/or accusations regarding motive aside, this is, at best, shoddy reporting.
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